ServiceCharge (Lucas Dunn)
}}ServiceCharge |- style=background:#000000 |'Species:' | style="width:17em" | }Human |- style=background:#000000 | Age: | }56 |- style=background:#000000 | Date of Birth: | }October 23rd, 2130 |- style=background:#000000 | Occupation: | }Mercenary |- style=background:#000000 | Location: | }Tsombesha |- style=background:#000000 | Marital Status: | }Single |- style=background:#000000 | Height: | }6'2" |- style=background:#000000 | Weight: | }14st 7lb |- style=background:#000000 | Relations: | }Nora Davids (sister) |- style=background:#000000 | Affiliations: | }Arthur Daye, Kim Avery |} Lucas Dunn is the assumed name of a mercenary serving in the Blue Suns' 9 Commando, currently holding the billet of Centurion. A lifetime soldier, Dunn has served in the EU Peacekeeping forces on Earth, in private security and in several branches of the Blue Suns. Drawn to Cerberus Daily News by the strong mercenary presence and information trade, he posts under the handle 'ServiceCharge'. Biography Early Life The man now known as Lucas Dunn was born in Sheffield, an industrial city in the northwest of England. The son of a local builder and a supermarket cashier, Dunn's childhood was one of austerity, driven more by girls, football and seeing how close he and his friends could skirt the law, rather than any academic pursuit. With little to aim for in life, and even less sense of direction, Dunn enlisted in the military as soon as he finished school at sixteen. Military Service Dunn entered active service four years later as a lowly private in the UK detachment of the EU peackeeping force. A year after that, he saw his first combat, as he and his unit were rotated into the Afghan DMZ, one of the few bases for large scale insurgencies still left on Earth. The nature of the conflict changed Dunn. The naive youth who had joined the army simply out of a lack of choice, who had breezed through the first few years of service with no intention of making a name for himself was hardened in the Afghan valleys. The man who had signed up under the pretense of protecting his country became cynical before his time, unwilling to forge friendships after seeing so many end in death. The list of people he could claim to care about dropped until the count numbered less than the fingers of one hand; and his priorities boiled away to just one: survival. Nonetheless, this new Dunn was a more determined soldier, and a more effective leader to boot. By the end of his first tour, he had made Corporal and been cited. By the end of his second, his dress uniform bore an additional pair of commendations, and a medal for wounds sustained. A slug wound in his leg kept him out of action long enough to consider his future. Looking to the development of humanity beyond the Sol system, Dunn steeled himself and applied for a position with the Systems Alliance Marine Corps. He was summarily rejected on the grounds of both aptitude tests, and psychological evaluations. The damage to Dunn's self esteem quickly manifested itself as bitterness, and Dunn started to question why he was a serving soldier at all. Discharged Following the completion of his tour in the DMZ, and all its associated psychological trauma, Dunn's unit was rotated to a deployment in Central Africa, charged with rooting out a so-called 'liberation' force causing trouble in Rwanda. With a much smaller threat than in the DMZ, Dunn had less opportunity to prove himself. However, his actions in the few combat operations he participated in were sufficient to earn him a promotion to Sergeant towards the end of the two year tour, briefly making platoon sergeant in lieu of a ranking NCO. All this came to nought however, when Dunn fell during a climbing drill. With a severe head injury requiring two operations to ensure no lasting damage, Dunn's prospects on the front lines were cut short, and he was honourably discharged a few weeks later. Young at only twenty-three, minimally educated and with no skill sets out of his service, Dunn drifted into the only work he could get - private security. Three years of uneventful employment in London left him with a distaste for those affluent and arrogant enough to hire him, and the climate he was frequently stood outside in. It also left him, for the first time in his life, with cash in hand. Armed with a reference from the one client he had got on with, he struck out and started again in France. Working as little more than a bodyguard was an incredibly dull occupation for the soldier who had fought Afghan insurgents, but it paid enough for him to live comfortably, and the traditional sunglasses he had adopted as part of his image actually got some use in the sun that warmed the south of France. For a few years, Dunn managed to be happy. He had a well paying job that he was good at, a house only a few miles from a beach and wine practically on tap. For the first time in his life, he also had a committed, happy relationship with a fellow expat. Life was so good, in fact, that the distinctly uneducated Dunn even had time to pick up a little French. Of course, this lifestyle was never going to last for a man of Dunn's luck, and after four years, his long term girlfriend was forced to return to England when her mother fell ill. Unable to afford leaving, Lucas was forced to watch her go. A few months of contact proved insufficient, and the two eventually broke it off. Frontier Life Without anyone significant in his life, Dunn struggled to maintain his drive and ambition. Before long, his lethargy and indifference had cost him his job, and the former soldier found he simply did not care. The army, his home country and even moving to sun and sea had proven dead ends. There was only one avenue left to him. When a television spot advertised the colony prospects on Elysium Dunn signed up before he even truly realised what he was doing. To his complete surprise, he was accepted, and promptly shipped out on a passenger vessel to the distant world. Going even further against Dunn's expectations, he took to the colony life with relish, initially working on constructing new settlements before settling down as a patrol trooper for the local militia. Not long after, he was joined on the colony world by his sister and her new husband, now the only family he had left in the world, after the death of his mother during his time in France and his father not long after he left Earth. Using a portion of his wage to help his sister start a family, Dunn began to fall back into the patterns of happiness he had experienced during France. That was until, nine years after arriving on Elysium, he was forced to become Lucas Dunn. The Blue Suns Cast out of his job, and with a jail sentence hanging over his head, the man who now called himself Lucas Dunn could find nothing to support him - or, now more importantly, his sister - anywhere in Alliance space. Penniless and desperate, Dunn turned back to the one marketplace for his skill set: private security. Despite his advancing age, the Blue Suns responded to his inquiry speedily, and with enthusiasm. Factoring in his record, age and lack of experience in combat on alien worlds, Dunn was accepted, but seconded to the private security branch. He was back on familiar ground, but this time, he was not content. Learning quickly what the Suns offered in a force deployment, Dunn vowed to reforge himself as a soldier for hire. Gaining a reputation as a fierce fighter, the nature of the wider galaxy afforded 'lowly' bodyguards much more frequent opportunities for small arms combat. After two years, Lucas was finally commissioned in the Suns' ground forces, as a Legionnaire in 7th Battalion. Six years of hard fighting for the unit took its toll on the scarred, weary soldier. He consigned himself to the ravages of age, and requested a transfer to a non-combat role. And so it was, the Lucas Dunn found himself a comfortable, ranking position in the Blue Suns Logistics Corps. 9 Commando He was still serving in the role seven years later, with a promotion to Legionnaire Class 1, the rough equivalent of Warrant Officer. Now a senior NCO, he was essentially second in charge of an entire logistics company who considered himself content with barking orders at subordinates, and occasionally tinkering with small arms configurations. Though ostensibly happy, Dunn gradually felt himself slipping into a familiar lethargy. Try as he might to fight it, he missed active combat duty. With his food and board taken care of by his employers, Dunn had become a man of spartan tastes. His only motivation for staying with the Suns was money, but he had nothing to spend it on. With precious little else mattering to him in the whole galaxy, Dunn sent almost everything he had, through a network of contacts and aliases, to his sister - now resettled on Noveria. Everything he had become was a veil to keep her safe. Even a lowly logistics NCO made enemies working for the Suns, and Lucas was determined no one would ever learn his one weakness, the one thing people could use to get at him. Above all else, he had to protect his sister and her family. With little regard for his own life, a desire for the excitement of real action, and motivated solely by money, Dunn was perfectly placed for an offer from a certain Major. Brought together in virtual form by the sheer chance of both posting on a small extranet site, Legionnaire Lucas Dunn and Major Art Daye got to to talking, and their discussion ended in a job offer. Dunn accepted without hesitation. Centurion Accepting a promotion to Centurion, Dunn was now senior NCO for an entire Commando. Back on the frontlines, he saw action within weeks, fighting the DLF on Trendalay. Isolated from HQ during the Cerberus attack on Omega, Dunn and a small unit were able to survive long enough - with the unlikely help of a group of Eclipse soldiers - to be extracted to safety, surviving into the dark days of the Reaper War. Centurion Dunn fought alongside Major Daye during 9 Commando's second deployment to the jungles of Katamayla, where the two survived the Reaper attack on the planet. 9 Commando then folded into the Blue Suns force that united with the rest of the Big Three and a dozen other merc bands under the flag of Aria T'Loak, before the army was committed to the battle of Earth. Fighting the Reapers to what was nearly the bitter end in the ruins of London - a place he hadn't seen for decades - Dunn was grievously wounded. Not one for giving in, however, the Centurion survived, and continued serving under newly promoted Lt Col. Daye as 9 Commando reformed itself. Nearly a year after the end of the Reaper War, Dunn finally returned from his injuries to active duty, preparing for what could only be a deteriorating situation on Tshombesha. Out of Character Notes Lucas Dunn's likeness is based on a photoshopped image of Liam Cunningham, a.k.a Game of Thrones' Davos Seaworth. Category:Humans Category:Characters Category:Blue Suns